the_replacementsfandomcom-20200214-history
Zoo or False?
"Zoo or False?" is the twenty-first episode of the first season of ''The Replacements''. Summary Riley replaces the zookeeper with an eco-warrior, who promptly frees the animals. Plot The family visits Amalgamated Zoo Corp. Gardens, a cruddy, poorly operated zoo where the animals are treated like prisoners. The creatures are stuffed in tiny cages, and some exhibits place natural enemies in the same cage. To Riley, it feels as if it gets worse each time they visit. Todd doesn’t see a problem here; he just gets his kicks by dangling bananas just out of reach of the monkeys. Riley stops by her favorite exhibit, a panther named Sasha, whom Riley dotes on. Riley confronts the zookeeper, named Hiram Smeck, and requests better living conditions for the animals. As the underpaid zookeeper feeds the animals gray slop, he says it would cost money to add things like natural grass, or anything else that would make their cages look like their natural habitat. Additionally, the zoo is so underfunded that the animal food is also his lunch. Ironically, a wealthy benefactor is nearby, but he exits the zoo when he sees the price of snickerdoodles. It becomes clear that Riley is the only person in her family disgusted by the zoo’s conditions. Riley calls Fleemco to replace the zookeeper with someone that cares about animals. Hiram gets a job at a mall petting zoo. Meanwhile, an eco-warrior chains herself to a tree to stop a forest from being bulldozed. The Fleemco crew deliver her an invitation, then they chain themselves to the tree. One month later, the Darings attend the grand reopening of Amalgamated Zoo Corp. Gardens, now led by the eco-warrior. She launches into an impassioned rant about how the zoo’s parent company wouldn’t let her improve the animals’ living conditions. The activist’s speech excites Riley so much, she calls for the animals to be free. At the end of the her speech, the activist pulls a switch freeing the animals from their cages. Agent K lassos the eco-warrior and throws her into a cage, but it’s too late; the animals escape the zoo and wreak havoc on Pleasant Hills. Riley encounters Sasha hanging onto a telephone pole, and she talks to Sasha like a pet, but Sasha jumps to maul Riley. Agent K traps Sasha in a cage, and she makes it clear to Riley that Sasha is a wild animal; she should be treated as such. Riley realizes that she replaced the wrong person. Then, Riley sees an ad on a passing bus featuring the zoo’s rich owner. Riley hatches a plan to round up the escaped animals and present them to the owner. It takes the Darings all day to catch all the animals. Once they’ve rounded up all the animals, C.A.R. airlifts the creatures to the Amalgamated Zoo Corp. corporate headquarters. The zoo animals surround the owner in his office. He tries to tell the Darings that Amalgamated Zoo Corp. Gardens is full, meaning there’s no room to expand. Todd, seeing a picture of the owner at a golf course, tells the owner to turn it into a nature sanctuary. Another month later, the animals frolic at the new nature preserve. At Dick's insistence, the golf course remains open. Notes *When Todd gets carried away by monkeys, he says, "Get your stinkin' paws off me, you darn dirty apes!" This is a near-direct reference to a quote from the 1968 film Planet of the Apes. Category:Episodes Category:Season One